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Dallas police officers used a sheet to cover the doorway as 2-month-old Justice Hull is removed from a Red Bird apartment on Jan. 26. (Ron Baselice/Staff Photographer)

Updated at 11:28 a.m.:

A Dallas girl who admitted drowning a baby she did not want her mother to adopt was sentenced Friday to 40 years in prison, the maximum punishment. She was 14 when she killed the baby and has since turned 15.

The girl will begin her sentence in state custody with the Texas Juvenile Justice Department. Before she turns 19, a juvenile court judge will decide whether she will be paroled or serve the remainder of her sentence in adult prison.

In a juvenile lockup, the girl will have more options than if she had been tried as adult. She will go to school and get counseling.

George Ashford, the teen’s attorney, said he wasn’t surprised by the sentence. He said the victory for his client came earlier this year when the case was not moved to adult court.

The attorney said the girl’s mother took the verdict “very hard.” She was not allowed to speak to her daughter after the hearing and will have to visit her another time.

Jurors will hear closing arguments Thursday before they begin deliberating whether to send a man who drowned his sons to death row or to life in prison without parole.

Naim Muhammad

Naim Muhhamd drowned Elijah, 3, and Naim, 5, in a smelly, shallow creek in August 2011 after abducting them and their mother as they walked to school near Fair Park in Dallas on what would have been Naim’s first day of kindergarten. The mother escaped and sought help after seeing a Dallas County constable. But Muhammad drowned the boys while police searched for them.

Dallas County prosecutors Tammy Kemp, Sherre Sweet, Josh Healy and Pat Kirlin are asking jurors to sentence Muhammad to death because, they say, he presents a future danger even if he lived out his life in prison.

Defense attorneys Paul Johnson, Kobby T. Warren and Mark Watson cite Muhammad’s upbringing as a reason to spare his life. They say he had a crack-addicted prostitute mother, frequent violence in the home and the Dallas school district failed to provide special education services after he showed symptoms that if not treated could lead to an anti-social personality disorder. Generically, anti-social personality disorder is also known as a sociopath, according to testimony.

Muhammad drowned the kids to get back at their mother, Kametra Sampson, who had ended their relationship. Muhammad told Naim and Elijah to pretend like they were swimming and he held their heads under the water until the boys stopped moving.

Muhammad has a history of domestic violence against Sampson and one his sisters.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving recently gave a Dallas County prosecutor a service award for trying alcohol-related criminal cases.

MADD gave Dallas County Assistant District Attorney Gary McDonald the Prosecutor Service Award Friday at its “Take the Wheel” Law Enforcement Awards Recognition ceremony.

Dallas County Assistant District Attorney Gary McDonald

McDonald, who now works in the intake division of the DA’s office, was “was honored for his tireless efforts in the prosecution of the numerous DWI and alcohol-related cases that are presented to the DA’s office,” the DA’s office said on its website.

Update 4:11 p.m.: Court has ended for the day. Testimony will resume in the morning.

Update 3:27 p.m.: The jury finds Dominique Thornton guilty of three count of aggravated robbery. He faces life sentence and the punishment phase is beginning immediately.

Update 2:33 p.m.: Jurors have sent a note this afternoon asking to listen to a recorded phone call Thornton made to his girlfriend. Judge Hawk is bringing jurors back in the courtroom and asked everyone to leave while jurors listen to the recording.

The call was played Wednesday for jurors.

Thornton is hard to understand as he speaks. When prosecutors played the call in court, a detective testified about what Thornton had said.

Thornton said in a recorded jail phone call that he knew he’d made a mistake when Dallas police found fingerprints connecting him to the robbery of three people along the Katy Trail last year.

“Yeah, I [expletive] up,” Thornton said the recorded call.

Thornton’s fingerprints were recovered from a coin purse belonging to the woman that was found laying next to her purse. The items were discovered by a housekeeper on a patio not far from the Katy Trail.

In the recorded jail call, Thornton told his girlfriend said he did not have a gun.

“On the one they got me on, on that one, I didn’t even have a pistol,” Thornton said on the call, according to Dallas police Detective Scott Hopkins. In court, Hopkins interpreted what was said because Thornton was difficult to understand.

The girlfriend responded: “So you just scared her?”

“Yeah, that’s what I did.”

Original post: 12:26 p.m.: A Dallas County jury is deliberating whether a 23-year-old man is guilty of three aggravated robberies along the Katy Trail in May 2012.

The charges against Dominique Thornton stem from the robbery of three people — a woman, her husband and sister-in-law — as they walked home from a birthday celebration at the Katy Trail Ice House. The woman was pushed by one man while a second man pointed a gun at the sister-in-law.

Thornton’s fingerprints were recovered from a coin purse belonging to the woman that was found laying next to her purse. The items were discovered by a housekeeper on a patio not far from the Katy Trail.

Thornton said in a recorded jail phone call that he knew he’d made a mistake when Dallas police found fingerprints connecting him to the robbery of three people along the Katy Trail last year.

Dominique Thornton

“Yeah, I [expletive] up,” Thornton said in a recorded phone call played for jurors.

In closing arguments, Thornton’s defense attorney Phillip Robertson told jurors the he had no doubts that the trio was robbed but argued that Dallas County prosecutors Jay Worley and Messina Madson did not prove their case.

Robertson said all prosecutors had to sway jurors was emotion. The three robbery victims could not positively identify Thornton as one of the men who robbed them. Although, a man who was robbed along the Katy Trail hours later testified today that Thornton robbed him. That man’s case has not been indicted by a grand jury.

“How many more men like Mr. Thornton will go down … while we kneel before the government,” Robertson said. Robertson said that jurors needed more evidence to convict and not prosecutors’ word that “just because they say it’s so, it’s so.”

Robertson said prosecutors did not prove a gun was used.

But Worley said “pure facts” proved Thornton committed the robbery. The sister-in-law testified that one of the men pointed a gun at her head and shouted to the others that one of the men had a gun.

The woman and husband said they did not see the gun because they were not looking in that direction. The husband was running after the man who stole the purse but stopped when he heard one of the robbers had a gun.

“Only one man in the world has Dominique Thornton’s fingerprints, and he’s sitting right there,” Worley said. “That’s not emotion. That’s a fact.”

If convicted, Thornton faces up to life in prison for aggravated robbery. If a gun was not used, the charge would be robbery, which is only punishable by up to 20 years.

The victims of the robbery are not being identified by The Dallas Morning News because authorities have expressed concern for their safety. Police have not charged a second person in the crimes.

State District Judge Susan Hawk, who is presiding over the trial, has admonished Thornton’s supporters several times about making gestures and comments in court. There is also an allegation that a threat was made Wednesday against a witness who is expected to testify in the punishment phase of the trial if Thornton is convicted.

The tragic slaying of Kaufman County DA Mike McLelland and his wife, Cynthia, will force prosecutors everywhere to rethink what they do and how they do it, said a top Dallas County prosecutor.

“All prosecutors are now going to have to question what we do because, again, you’re talking about a man who devoted his life to trying to protect the citizens of Kaufman County,” Dallas County First Assistant Heath Harris said at a news conference. “And they not only killed him, they killed his wife, and that’s unspeakable.”

Harris said security is being ramped up for Dallas County DA Craig Watkins and his staff. Harris, citing security measures, declined to offer specifics. He did say that changes will be made for prosecutors and parking.

“Obviously we have some concerns for the safety of District Attorney Craig Watkins, as well. Clearly being the first African American district attorney in the state of Texas, we’ve always had those concerns for DA Watkins,” Harris said. “We will be heightening our security around him.”

Harris said that Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins, Sheriff Lupe Valdez and county commissioners have been supportive of increased security.

One visible change on Monday at the criminal courthouse just outside of downtown Dallas was that a broken machine to screen bags coming into the courthouse has been replaced at one entrance. Last week, security guards were hand searching bags at one entrance.

The replacement machine was not new and sat next to the broken machine.

Harris said he has always assured attorneys in the past that they were safe. Now, things are different.

“I’ve always assured prosecutors that I’ve never heard of anything like this taking place,” Harris said about what he said before the slayings. “It’s always a concern of individuals who are going to be putting away the bad guys, so to speak, that ‘is there going to be some kind of retaliation?’”

Harris, who has prosecuted gang and death penalty cases, said that the slayings change his perspective on safety.

“I’ve prosecuted some of the worst of the worst, and I’ve never feared, I’ve never feared any retaliation,” Harris said. “Not this extent.”

Harris said that Watkins’ administration would “encourage” the staff to obtain concealed handgun licenses and that some already do. He also suggested that prosecutors always be aware of their surroundings.

Harris said that the Dallas County DA’s office is talking to their counterparts in Kaufman County. Harris said Watkins and his staff will offer any help they can.

“Our hearts are heavy,” Harris said. “We are extremely, extremely horrified at the events in Kaufman County, and we send our prayers to the citizens of Kaufman County and especially the men and women who work at the Kaufman County District Attorney’s office.”

He was the unlikely candidate who won an upset victory — and then became a national celebrity for freeing the wrongfully convicted.

She was a wealthy political benefactor — on a mission to turn a red state blue.

And from those origins, Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins and prominent Dallas lawyer and Democratic benefactor Lisa Blue began a political, professional and personal relationship.

But what was a storybook political union is now more J.R. Ewing than Cinderella….

What happens next could have a profound impact on the struggle between Republicans and Democrats in Dallas County, even at a state level, if legal problems divert Blue’s attention from her political strategizing and largesse, and undermine Watkins’ status as a Democratic standard-bearer….

Dallas attorney and Democratic Party benefactor Lisa Blue says she’ll let political professionals ruminate about the potential fallout from court hearings in which Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins was accused of bringing charges against a defendant as a favor to her.

But Blue told The Dallas Morning News that she thinks that “Democratic candidates and the Democratic Party will be just fine.”

State District Judge Lena Levario dismissed mortgage fraud charges against Al Hill III, the great-grandson of Texas oil legend H.L. Hunt, last week. By that time, Blue had pleaded the Fifth and Watkins was held in contempt.

Hill was once Blue’s client but they later found themselves on opposing sides in a lawsuit over attorney fees.

Both Blue and Watkins have denied that she encouraged Watkins to seek a criminal indictment against Hill. Hill’s lawyers argued that the criminal charges hindered his defense during that lawsuit.

We’ll be exploring the friendship and professional relationship between Blue and Watkins more in Sunday’s paper.